I’m quite impressed that its had almost 50 views already. Maybe 50 people do care about what I do all day? :-p

So here it is, for all you old school kids – and to continue in the tradition of posting it on my blog:

- Jen

Anyway, so with the man gone, I’m fending for myself for a few months. While I always had an inkling that the man took care of most of the household chores it has become readily apparent to me that ‘most’ actually equals all.

Cooking, cleaning, washing, cat litterbox changing, bringing in the mail, taking the bins out, bringing them in, dishwasher stacking, dishwasher unpacking, sharpening Schroddy’s claws, shopping, unpacking the shopping, flossing the cats teeth, just general household stuff..the list is endless! Sure I cook here and there…but this is out of control! I barely have time to go to work, let alone sleep and train!

I’m mostly coping okay, not freaked out about being home alone at night like I thought I might be. The other night I even went and checked the mail at night without sprinting back to the front door. But after work and training its pretty hard to come home and be bothered to cook for one. For a person who doesn’t train like I do this might not be such an issue but with the amount I’m doing, I haven’t been feeling too great trying to train after a week of no red meat or vegetables!

Thankfully, and this is what this post is about (you knew I’d get to the point eventually) I’ve had some really really lovely people offer to cook for me, have me over for dinner, cook me meals and bring them into work for me, meet me for dinner etc. Some are even just people I work with and I have to say each offer made my day! It really really did, I was pretty chuffed!

It made me so happy to know that there are people I know out there who are so lovely! Special mention must go to my step-mother-in-law (SMIL?) who cooked me enough tuna mornay to last me three nights, so I could freeze some for later.

I finally made some time this weekend to cook enough meals to freeze which will last me a week or so, and with next week being full of Christmas BBQs and the man returning later in the week, I won’t have to resort to anymore tuna and salad or cereal for dinners! I also got the house cleaned up, cleared out the pantry (anyone want some fish sauce from 2007?), baked twice (for the aforementioned BBQs) and just got more organised.

And hey! I found time to blog.

- Jen
p.s. The title of this post is from ‘Christmas is going to the dogs’ by The Eels, one of my favourite Christmas songs.

The band is Loon Lake, the song is ‘into the office’.

Why is it a ‘jen song’? It’s got lyrics that tell a story! And its damn catchy. I’ve been wandering around the house while I’m getting ready for bed going “bee boo boo boo bee boo boo boo bee boo boo boo”.. you get the picture.  For some reason the man is pretty sick of the song.

Technically I shouldn’t really like the lyrics because they tell a story about a guy and a girl who are living together and the guy loses his job. They start drifting apart and she ends up meeting another guy and something about ”bee boo boo boo bee boo boo boo bee boo boo boo”. Hmmm. Anyway.

I think my favourite bit is:

“So Monday in his jammies, watching cartoons, eating cereal with the dog
He’s dressed and in the study at 5:30 but she knows he hasn’t been there long
And pretty soon he notices she’s going out and not coming home at all
With so much time alone, they’re growing apart”

For the visually inclined:

- Jen

The race is a 38km MTB, 26km paddle and a 25km run. I completed the MTB leg, Catarina did the paddle leg and Rach had the run.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. My first MTB race, and by all accounts the course was extremely tough – not technical but really steep. Liam our coach said I’d probably finish it in 2:30 so I told the girls to expect me in 3:30. Every race I’ve done so far I’ve haven’t done particularly well in. I’ve finished them all but for example my Anaconda run was a shambles, a really terrible run, Bullen Merri my knee carked it, even the recent paddle race I should have done better. So my racing self esteem was pretty much non-existent.

The only thing I wanted to get out of the race was to make sure at the end I couldn’t look back and think I could have gone harder or I hadn’t given it my best.

So yeah, pretty nervous. A little bit of ‘Anaconda belly’ but I’m getting used to managing that before races. All part of being an athlete I guess. I was as ready as I could be, had my camelbak full of water, a drink bottle with an electrolyte tablet, some gu chomps and two dextro bars. Way more than I thought I needed but I had room and better to be safe! I was also surprised how warm it was. I had a singlet on under my jersey and with the race bib on I felt pretty comfortable even that early.

I had a chat to a few people, finally met my Dad’s osteo Tom Barry (a lovely guy) and spoke to Emma Crosser who was doing the paddle leg. She’s done the MTB a few times and just said to try and enjoy it and look at the scenery and to have FUN. That made me more nervous…no one would say that if it was going to be easily enjoyable! But I appreciated what she was saying..

The MTB leg started at 8am just outside a community centre in Khancoban. Right before the start Liam tugged at the singlet I had on under my jersey and said I shouldn’t have worn it as it was cotton..not much I could do though! Then as we were lining up for the start the guy next to me said “hey where’d you get that timing band thing?”..he seriously didn’t have his!!

Anyway, the ride surprisingly starts with a gentle downhill which I was advised to take it easy on as straight after the first corner you start climbing…and it is a long time before you stop. Everyone was off their bikes and walking (myself included) pretty quickly. It was very very steep. For the first 30 minutes I was just trying to calm myself down and trying to remind myself I still had a long time to go. I only started to relax when I realised I wasn’t coming last or even being passed and was actually passing people myself. That made me feel really good.

After some awful climbs and hauling Anthony (my bike) up fire trails you’d struggle to walk up let alone ride I reached the lovely small and only bit of single track in the whole race. It would not be technical if I was better at cornering but I did lose a bit of time and was passed by a couple of more confident riders. There was about three logs that I had no trouble going over, but just as I reached the fourth I looked up and saw a photographer…and then stacked it. I landed on my shoulder and Anthony landed on me but I jumped up straight away and kept riding. I didn’t bother to check anything as I was just trying to get going so I didn’t lose time. After that it was out of the single track and less climbing but some very steep descents on loose gravel. I was pretty happy with how I handled that, just got my weight back on the bike, made sure I looked where I wanted to go, not where I didn’t and it all went ok. I was surprised how much I was drinking though and was thinking I might even run out of water. I made sure to keep having the electrolyte drink too but yeah…was drinking a lot!

After descending back down to the paddocks I was done with the first section and was barreling along on the flat near the Khancoban pondage and past my waiting teammates who gave me a cheer and Liam reminded me to stick on the back of the wheel of the guy in front of me.

After I went past them, a bit after 9am I was pretty worried about what was coming next but felt really happy about how I’d done so far. I realised I should probably have something to eat.

Problem. I had gloves on, my jersey zips from the side and my gu chomps were in a sealed baggie. I hadn’t even thought of how I’d get them out. After riding along one handed sticking on the back of the guys wheel fumbling around for about five minutes I decided it’d be quicker to stop and sort it out. So I did that, then with a mouthful of chomps I took off after the two in front of me. I caught them fairly quickly which I was happy about and then all too soon we were climbing again. This time through a bloody paddock with cow pats everywhere. I made sure to remember what Emma had said and appreciated being able to see amazing Mt Kosciuszko with all the snow and how green everything was.

By now I was riding with the same few people, at times they’d be in front and then I would be, this was a bit of a confidence boost too. One girl and I were neck and neck, I’d ride up a steep section as far as I could pedal and then clip out before losing traction and she’d say “good on you” and then on the next bit she’d ride a metre further than I could and I’d say the same thing.

At this point I was surviving but starting to get worn out and hoping there wasn’t too many more hills to go. There were a couple of hairy descents and there was one down a grassy paddock where I copped a bit of cow pat on my nose, as I flew down the hill (which a few people walked down by the way) I looked to my right and saw the people ahead of me walking back up it on the other side of the fence. I was shattered knowing I had that ahead of me.

I got to the bottom of the hill and the marshal said something like “good on you, you’re doing well if you’ve got this far you’ll be right”…I think I replied back something savage about what the race could go and do to itself and grabbed Anthony and started walking. That was a terrible hill. I just put one foot in front of the other…as fast as I could!

But when I made it up the top the fire road appeared and there were lots of gentle hills and descents and the road just wound its way around the hills instead of up and over them. At this point I really started to have a bit of fun, I was gunning along in the big ring and passing a few people..and then there was one more last descent down to the flat paddocks.

Time for my second stack, I did well going down with my weight back but there was a bit of a mud pit at the bottom which I slipped on. Didn’t hurt at all, just got a bit dirty on one side. Then it was out onto the flat paddocks. There were a few shallow water channels to cross which they’d put boards across, they were pretty fun to go over.

I was riding with the guys and girl I’d been with most of the last part of the race when we got to a creek crossing, as I approached it I watched a couple of riders ahead of my go through and the guy next to me pedalled hard and went though, I cruised up to it and decided to give it a go and made it through! I was so excited when I go to the other side I yelled “YES!!!!!”. I think the girl I’d been riding with decided to walk through it so that was the last I saw of her. After that I overtook about three or four guys because I got a bit excited when I saw the river and figured the end was near. The time was about 2:26 now and I didn’t think I’d make 2:30. I was rapt about the fact I was so close though.

But on and on it went…where was the transition!! I was in the big ring really pushing it across the rocky paddock trails and then finally there was the end. I thought it was about 2:40 but the results say 2:37.

Rach and Caterina had to take my helmet, timing band and race bib off for me and get Caterina ready for the paddle. I wasn’t much help here but we managed to get Caterina off for the paddle leg pretty quickly.

After that Rach and I had to get Anthony on the Vigor mobile (okay, Rach had to do it, I was useless) and then navigate to the paddle to run transition. While I was feeling very relaxed/trashed Rach was getting nervy about her upcoming run.

All too soon Caterina had come in on the paddle and she was off. Caterina had a great paddle, especially considering the fast flowing water!

After Rach left we waited around for a boat that never came (a story for another day) and then headed into town to see the end of the run. I put Anthony back together and pedalled off up the hill to see Rach in on the run finish. When I was about 4kms from the finish I stopped and waited for her. About five runners went by (all blokes)…some doing some very slow running, and a couple walking. Soon enough Rach appeared, running as if she was out on a Sunday morning looking fresh as a daisy. She enquired about how much longer the hill went on for and I told her she was only 3kms from the finish. I pedalled along next to her until the last few hundred metres and let her go to get the 3rd fastest female time. 25kms in 2:17. Amazing!

All in all we had a really successful day. Vigor Chicks and Vigor blokes team both got #1 place in the female and male teams respectively. And from a personal perspective I had a race I can be proud of. I’ve put the sweat and occasionally blood and tears into my training recently and it was nice to finally feel like I’ve achieved something.

While I’m speaking like an ‘athlete’ I’d like to thank:

- The man obviously for being patient and humouring me while I go out and do these events.
- My family for putting on an awesome post event dinner and accomodation! It was awesome and I really really appreciated it. Especially poor Nan who had to wait so long for her dinner!
- Liam my coach, and on a couple of occasions bearer of tissues when everything has got a bit too much.

Here are some photos to finish:

- Jen

To make it a bit more interesting I’ve included this amazing clip of Danny Macaskill with the song playing in the background. Watch it..it is AWESOME and will blow your MIND!

The song is “The Wolves” by Ben Howard. In the clip its the acoustic version, but the regular version will rocks your socks too.

- Jen

Tammy was our first dog, in a previously cat only house. Now my parents have one or two other dogs (depending on who you talk to), one is actually my sister’s dog, Bailey.

To cheer myself up I thought I’d recount some of the funny times I had with Tam:

- wrestling with her and playing hide and seek around the kitchen when she was a puppy
- trying to find a black lab puppy at night who didn’t want to come inside..impossible to see or catch!
- playing tug of war with one of Dad’s long sports socks, she pulled so hard she won and when I looked over I realised she’d also swallowed the sock..which reappeared a day or so later
- My parents realising she’d eaten all of the strawberries in the vegie patch
- Having to jump into next door’s yard to try and catch her when she was old enough to jump the fence. Impossible unless you could dive and tackle her!
- Taking her swimming at the weir and having her freak out when she couldn’t touch the bottom
- Trying to go for a run without her and having to try and sneak out of the yard..inevitably I’d turn around and see her bound over the fence and come trotting after me
- As James reminded me below: going to the letter box one day and noticing a photo of my head chewed up lying in the grass. Then a photo of my body nearby…Tammy has pulled my uni grad photos out of the letter box and eaten/torn them up. Not a popular dog that day, although it was very very funny.
-  Using Dad’s office chair with wheels on it and a chew toy to have her pull me around on the concrete outside when Dad was having his Christmas afternoon nap – egged on by Mum!

Well that definitely made me feel better!
- Jen

Saturday I went for my usual road ride with the Vigor crew. We’d planned to do a long ride out towards Panton Hill and back through Warrandyte, but because the weather looked dubious we later opted for the Mt Pleasant loop (3hrs) instead. It was Rach and I + four guys and the pace was on from the get go. I think we were on Heidelberg Rd (barely 1km from where we left) when I said to Rach that there was no way I could keep up for four hours.

Rach, ever the optimist decided that it would be ‘good for us’ if we tried to keep up. So we didn’t get dropped entirely and at some points the boys even kept the pace to just ‘mildly uncomfortable’.

But after pushing myself for that time, by the time we reached Mt Pleasant I knew I was in trouble. I tucked in behind Ben who was tucked in behind Matt J who was behind Rach..who was not happy about it. She advised Matt and Ben they could overtake her, but they told her it was ‘good for her’. I had Mike behind me and begged him to go around because I was finding the pace difficult and knew I’d fall off the back soon.

But I hung on for most of Mt Pleasant and noticed Mike had dropped well off the back of me. Eventually he caught up when I red lined but I was pretty happy about my effort. Should probably get a Garmin at some point at see how hard I’m really working!

We headed back along Research-Warrandyte Rd as a group and then along Eltham-Yarra Glen rd back into Eltham. After a short steep climb onto Old Eltham Rd we came across a van that had its back wheels stuck in a culvert.

We rode slowly past, and then we all stopped to help. See cyclists ARE good people! We gently placed the bikes on the nature strip and clipped clopped across the road in our cleats to help push the van out. The driver was so grateful and although I doubted we’d be able to push the van out we actually managed it.

We hopped back on the bikes and continued on. Every time we do the Eltham Loop ‘the cutting’ (up Lower Heidelberg Rd) is in the back of my mind. In reality it is not that bad, especially if you are on someone’s wheel, but ever since I went riding with one of the man’s friends who sat on my wheel and shouted insults at me while I rode up it I’ve made a point of trying to push myself.

Today the two nutcases (Cam and Ben) hit it hard and left us eating their dust. Matt J took it easy as he had a big run the next day which left Mike, Rach and myself (at the back). Rach overtook Mike and I followed her. After a few metres I decided I’d give overtaking Rach a go and burn myself out.

I did it! Legs were dead by the top but I was pleased I’d pushed myself!

As we rode back along Heidelberg Rd I was dead tired, but luckily still riding defensively. A car overtook five of the six riders but decided it didn’t want to wait for me and turned left down a street – right in front of me. Using my cycling ‘spidey sense’ I’d had a feeling this might happen as the driver looked pretty dodgy. I still had to slam on the brakes but had enough control to save myself but still give them a hell of a fright. Hopefully they will think twice about doing that to a cyclist again.

Anyway! A great ride, and well deserved brekkie at the bell jar afterwards!

- Jen

It reminded me of the IT crowd episode where the boys tell Jen a box is ‘the internet’…..

Anyway, it made me laugh!

- Jen

The wine bar is really cosy and we had a great time. I had a glass of red and then switched to cider/perry which is my new favourite drink.

Here is a fun fact, pear cider is actually called Perry, although I’ve never heard of anyone selling it as ‘perry’. The man loved the wine he had, a doozy of a red called ‘the concoction’ – or otherwise known as a 2006 Small Gully – Mr Black’s Concoction – GSM (Grenache Shiraz Mourvédre). It was really strong – I could only handle a glass, but it was amazing.

While we were there we noticed they had posters up for a $10 Sunday night curry. Generally we are hermits, perfectly happy at home and rarely venturing out but we decided we could be persuaded for $10 curry and a glass of wine just down the road.

So we trotted off there tonight to check it out – hoping it wouldn’t be too packed. It definitely wasn’t and apparently we timed it perfectly as a guitarist had just started playing as we arrived. The super friendly bartender (who we found out later is named Michael) helped us select a glass of wine and we chose the 2007 Shotfire Barossa Quartage. Michael told us that the curry for tonight was kangaroo.

This didn’t bother either of us as we both eat skippy. Michael told us that he’d cooked it a few weeks ago and it was a sellout so it was back by popular demand!

We sat in the front room (it was just us and the guitarist), sipped on our wine and chatted as only a married couple can. That is, you see each other every single day and already know the ins and outs of everything about each other and are in a situation where you are sitting across from each other wondering what the hell to talk about next. So I talked about paddling, the man talked about Lego and we both talked about our friends and also our upcoming trip to Adelaide which we are looking forward to. It was great! Nice to get rid of the tv, and to be able to focus on each other.

Our kangaroo curry arrived and with it, fresh conversation fodder as we were able to talk about how good it was! Not gamey in the slightest and the meat was just falling to bits. Nice chunky potatoes and carrots made it the perfect Sunday night meal. Filling, but not too filling and the red wine went down very well too.

After we finished we went back to the bar to thank bartender Michael and introduce ourselves….and advise them that we’ll back again!

As far as the wine bar goes, I highly recommend it. Cosy and you can still hear each other talk! One really cool thing they do is allow you to order from any of the restaurants in the area, who can deliver to the bar. Fantastic! We saw a few people ordering from Jack’s Satay Bar (just down the road) and Jack’s staff were bringing their meals in. So many options!

Details: Strangeloves Wine & Tapas
Location: 577 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds
Website: Strangeloves
Coke Rating: Why order coke, when you can drink wine!…..or perry!

- Jen

This post is about a particularly naughty cyclist that I saw this week.

I seem to have developed a habit of witnessing/being involved in extraordinary events involving bikes.

So far this year I’ve seen:

- one friend slide along the bitumen after her back wheel slid out on the boulevard
- another friend get hit by a car right in front of me (car sped up around us and then
turned in front of the group, taking out my friend)
- had a nasty stack and concussed myself (thanks @scootabug)
- had another friend fall off their bike (going uphill) right in front of me
- had another friend almost stack when a bunch of spokes in their rear wheel broke
during the Whittlesea Challenge – again I was behind them…

But yesterdays adventure blew me away. I found it both hilarious and scary -
scare-larious!

I was moseying along Johnston St in Abbotsford on my commuter heading to Toorak for an appointment when I had to cross Johnston St. It was raining and I got to the pedestrian lights which were red. Traffic was at a standstill and I watched the cyclist in front of me ride his bike across the pedestrian crossing. I was standing at the lights when I heard a car driver abusing the cyclist for crossing against the lights.

So, the cyclist was in the wrong. They crossed when the pedestrian light was red. But traffic was completely stuck, partly due to a car driver who was now yelling at the cyclist. To be honest I was considering crossing as well.

The cyclist quite rightly pointed out that yes he was in the wrong, but traffic was stuck because of the car driver. The car driver lost it and started abusing the cyclist more….using words I won’t use here.. to describe the cyclist.

Obviously the cyclist wasn’t having a good day (perhaps he was upset about Mia Freedman?) and….wait for it…..

Put his fist through the passenger side window and it just EXPLODED!!!!!!!

I was in a state of shock..I could not believe what had just happened..

THEN the car driver got such a shock he put his foot on the accelerator and slammed into the car in front of him.

THEN the cyclist rode off.

By now I was in complete disbelief about the scene that was unfolding in front of me.

Being a good citizen I went over and got both the cars to pull over to the side of the road. I noticed the driver was bleeding – from the glass that had exploded in his car.

Not good. For a brief second I felt sorry for him and asked if he was okay. But then he continued shouting about cyclists.

I went and checked on the driver of the car he hit, a young lady probably about 25 who was fairly calm considering someone had just run up the back of her. She didn’t quite understand what was going on.

I wrote down my name and number and went and gave it to the cranky cyclist hater who was STILL ranting about cyclists. I said to him that I stopped to help, and I’m a cyclist and all he could say was “this is why everyone hates cyclists”.

I’d had enough of the hating on cyclists, said “whatever” and rode off.

So firstly, what the cyclist did was so wrong. He injured a person and its lucky that the glass didn’t hit the cyclist haters eye. And he rode off. AND he made other cyclists (like me) look bad.

But the car driver started it!!! No excuse for the cyclist (AT ALL) but the driver was in the wrong too.

I’m not going to go into the car v cyclists debate. I’m sick to death of it. There are bad car drivers, and my story is the perfect example of a bad cyclist. You can read the comments on today’s article in The Age for some car v cyclist debate.

This post is more about my WTF start to the day. By the time I got to Toorak I just couldn’t stop giggling about the absurdity of it all. I had to ring the man and Rach about it and say “this happened…and THEN….THIS HAPPENED”. Unbelievable!

Later that afternoon I got a call from the Collingwood Police Station. I was probably the most unhelpful witness ever.

Police: What happened?
Me: Explain what happened, including what the driver said – and of course what the cyclist did
Police: What did the cyclist look like?
Me: I don’t know
Police: What colour hair did the cyclist have?
Me: I don’t know
Police: What kind of bike was the cyclist riding?
Me: I don’t know

I wasn’t deliberately being unhelpful, but it had been raining and it happened so fast and there was so much going on, I wasn’t really thinking about the cyclists hair colour (plus he had a helmet on). For once I wasn’t even checking out someone’s bike!

Anyway. I had to share this story, it was just unbelievable!

- Jen